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    Society, the Sacred and Scripture in Ancient Judaism: A Sociology of Knowledge
    Society, the Sacred and Scripture in Ancient Judaism: A Sociology of Knowledge
    Society, the Sacred and Scripture in Ancient Judaism: A Sociology of Knowledge
    Ebook182 pages1 hour

    Society, the Sacred and Scripture in Ancient Judaism: A Sociology of Knowledge

    By Jack N. Lightstone

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    This work explores the relationship between religion, social patterns, and the perception of the character of scripture in four modes of Ancient Judaism: (1) the Jerusalem community of the fifth to fourth centuries B.C.E. (ie, the Early Second Temple Period); (2) the Judaism of the Graeco-Roman Disapora down to the end of the fourth century of the Christian Era; (3) earliest rabbinic Judaism in the second century C.E> in the land of Israel; (4) Late Antique Talmudic Rabbinism, primarily inn Babylonia, down to the sixth century of the Christian Era. Lightstone attempts not only to describe these perceptions and relationships but also to account for them, to explore why scripture should be thus perceived. His imaginative approach to the challenging descriptive and theoretical tasks is influenced by literary and form-critical methods as well as by the methods and perspectives of social anthropology and sociology of the mind.

    This unique attempts at revising the perception of the character of scripture should arouse the interest of scholars and students of Ancient Judaism.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWilfrid Laurier University Press
    Release dateOct 30, 2010
    ISBN9781554587339
    Society, the Sacred and Scripture in Ancient Judaism: A Sociology of Knowledge
    Author

    Jack N. Lightstone

    Jack N. Lightstone is a veteran of university administration, having served as the President of Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, from 2006 to 2016. Jack is also an outstanding historian of Roman history and the rise of post-temple Judaism. He is the author of The Commerce of the Sacred (1984, 2006) and The Rhetoric of the Babylonian Talmud (1994). He continues at Brock University as a Professor of History.

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      Book preview

      Society, the Sacred and Scripture in Ancient Judaism - Jack N. Lightstone

      STUDIES IN CHRISTIANITY

      AND JUDAISM

      Number 3

      SOCIETY, THE SACRED,

      AND SCRIPTURE IN

      ANCIENT JUDAISM

      A SOCIOLOGY OF

      KNOWLEDGE

      Jack N. Lightstone

      Published for the Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses by Wilfrid Laurier University Press

      1988

      Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

      Lightstone, Jack N.

           Society, the sacred, and scripture in ancient

      Judaism

      (Studies in Christianity and Judaism = Études sur le

      christianisme et le judaisme ; 3)

      Bibliography: p.

      Includes index.

      ISBN 0-88920-975-8

      1. Sociology, Biblical. 2. Sociology, Jewish.

      3. Bible. O.T. — Criticism, interpretation, etc.,

      Jewish. I. Title. II. Series: Studies in

      Christianity and Judaism ; 3.

      BS1199.S6L54 1988      220.8'301      C88-094061-1

      © 1988 Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion/

                 Corporation Canadienne des Sciences Religieuses

           88 89 90 91 4 3 2 1

      Cover design by Michael Baldwin, MSIAD

      Society, the Sacred, and Scripture in Ancient Judaism has been produced from a manuscript supplied in camera-ready form by the author.

      No part of this book may he stored in a retrieval system, translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.

      Order from:

      Wilfrid Laurier University Press

      Wilfrid Laurier University

      Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5

      Printed in Canada

      For

      Dorothy, Jennifer, and Etan

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Preface

      Transliterations

      Chapter One: Introduction

      Chapter Two: The Restoration Community and the Torah of Moses

      Chapter Three: Diaspora, Sources of the Sacred, and Torah as Holy Relic

      Chapter Four: Earliest Rabbinic Circles, Mishnah and Scripture as Closed System

      Chapter Five: Talmudic Rabbinism, Midrash, and the Fragmentation of Scripture

      Notes

      Selected Bibliography and Abbreviations

      General Subject Index

      PREFACE

      This work explores the relationship of religion, social patterns, and the perception of the character of scripture in four distinct modes of Ancient Judaism: 1 ) the 'Restoration' community of the fifth to fourth centuries BCE; 2) the Judaism of the Graeco-Roman Diaspora down to the end of the fourth century CE; 3) earliest rabbinic Judaism of the second century CE in the Land of Israel; 4) Late Antique Talmudic Rabbinism, primarily in Babylonia, down through the sixth century CE. This work attempts, first, to describe for each of the settings how scripture is perceived and, second, to explore why it is thus perceived — that is, the first task is descriptive and the second broaches the issue of explanation and, therefore, of theory. The presentation of the material, including the consideration of four discrete Judaic modes and communities, has been organized to facilitate the theoretical agenda. The approach both to the descriptive and to theoretical aspects is heavily influenced not only by the methods of literary and form criticism now used in the study of the literature of Ancient Judaism, but also by the methods and perspectives of symbolic, cultural anthropology and the sociology of knowledge.

      About these matters, I shall say more below and in chapter 1 . At this juncture, however, I should specify what this work does not attempt to do.

      It does not attempt to be a comprehensive account either of Ancient Judaism or of biblical interpretation in Ancient Judaism. I have omitted entirely consideration of some groups, most notably the Dead Sea Commmunity at Qumran. Nor does this work clearly fall within the field of the history of biblical exegesis because it lacks that area's persistent attention to the content of exegesis and to the history of that content. To the extent that this study concerns itself with biblical interpretation, it focusses primarily on the form in which exegesis occurs. There is a third sense in which this study is limited in its scope. It does not attempt a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the religion of even those groups considered, or of the literature which they have left us, or of their origins, history, and development.

      What follows attempts to explore the most fundamental, coherent and general patterns which characterize the cultures of Ancient Judaic groups. It is my contention that these consistent patterns encode meaning (as does language) and thereby make statements about how the world is, about the location of the group in that world, about the nature of the interaction within and among realms in that world. In other words, these patterns convey and constitute knowledge of the topography of the socially constructed world and of relationships and processes within that topography. Scripture, once adopted as such, ostensibly provided the immutable, official map of things; what, therefore, happens to scripture, how it is reconstructed or differently perceived, in each of four distinct Judaic contexts in the Ancient World, provides valuable insight into, even an indicator of, the socio-cultural processes which underlie shared perceptions of what the world is.

      For those interested in the sociology of knowledge and symbolic anthropology, the work will provide relevant evidence from Ancient and Late Antique religion and literature. I would hope as well that the study contributes to the attempt to demonstrate the value of these historical data for sociological and anthropological theorizing. For those involved in the history of religions and for scholars of Ancient Judaism in particular, I offer an attempt to show further the value of the sensibilities and perspectives of social anthropology as a complement to historical and literary critical methods in the study of religions and their literature. For the student of biblical exegesis, I offer a different way of seeing the place of scripture in the life of the community which reveres it. So, while not comprehensive, the work intends to be more than merely heuristic or suggestive. It explores different issues to a different end than is usually the case among scholars of Ancient Judaism or of biblical exegesis.

      This book emerged from my participation over the last four years in the Torah/Nomos Group of the annual meetings of the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies. Three chapters directly emerged from papers delivered to the group; chapter 4 and an earlier version of chapter 3 were published in the group's proceedings in Studies in Religion between 1984 and 1986 and appear in the present context with permission of the journal and its publisher. These chapters owe much to the resulting discussion and criticism by the Torah/Nomos Group. I owe, therefore, a special thanks to Professor Peter Richardson (University College, University of Toronto), who organized the group's sessions and acted as editor for the publication of the proceedings.

      English translations of biblical passages are from the Revised Standard Version as published in the Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha; biblical passages cited in rabbinic texts have been so rendered, however, as to make those texts intelligible. Unless otherwise indicated, translations of extra-biblical texts are my own.

      My colleagues at Concordia, Professors F. Bird, C. Davis, M. Despland, H. Joseph, D. Howes, M. Miller, S. McDonough, M. Oppenheim, I. Robinson, J. Rossner, and L. Teskey-Denton, and my students and colleagues, N. Joseph, S. Fishbane and M. McBrea ., , have all read and commented upon earlier drafts of the majority of chapters. I can imagine no better collegial context in which to work than they provide. For any faults in this study, only I am responsible.

      My doctoral student, Ruth Vale, worked extensively on the the preparation of the final manuscript and the bibliography. She deserves my special gratitude. L. Stevens kindly proofread the manuscript.

      This project was brought to completion with the aid of funds from Concordia University; its support is appreciated.

      This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

      I dedicate this work to my family; they will know why this work, which emerged over the last several years, is integrally related to my life together with them.

      Jack N. Lightstone

      Concordia University

      Montreal, PQ, Canada

      Lag BaOmer, 5747

      May 1987

      TRANSLITERATIONS

      CHAPTER ONE

      Introduction

      This study, as noted in the preface, explores the relationship in Ancient Judaism of religion, social patterns and place, and 'perception' of scripture. The work proceeds both comparatively and historically by examining these relationships in four distinct Judaic settings: (1) the 'Restoration' community in Judah during the fifth and fourth centuries BCE; (2) the Graeco-Roman Diaspora down to the end of the fourth century CE; (3) earliest rabbinic Judaism of the second century in the Land of Israel; (4) Late Antique Talmudic Rabbinism, primarily in Babylonia, down through the sixth century CE. By following this approach this work intends both to describe and to explain these relationships in Ancient Judaism; that is, the task is not only to lay out data in some new fashion, but also to offer some theoretical account for their interrelationship. Many other works have broached questions about the place of scripture in Judaism. ¹ Wherein this study differs, and where it has its own contribution to make, is precisely in the theoretical and methodological perspectives adopted.

      The Problem

      The Jewish scriptures evolved out of, and subsequently assumed their place within, diverse Judaic spheres in the Ancient world. All of these spheres left their mark, first, upon the editing and compilation of the documents; second, upon their coming together in canonical collections; and, third, upon their interpretation. The rabbinic Bible, for example, reflects one canon among others current in Yahwehistic circles. ² The rabbis' collection and their interpretation of scripture differed from, and competed with, those of non-rabbinic groups. And the biblical literature inherited by the rabbis itself reflects the views and practices of several successive (Deuteronomic) factions facing opposition from contemporary Israelite protagonists. ³ All these assertions now are commonplace among most biblical and rabbinic scholars. But such claims, while generally assented to, have engendered little systematic exploration of how in particular these texts, collections and exegeses reflect these various and varied socio-cultural Judaic contexts.

      Two main reasons account for this state of affairs. First, for many students of Ancient Judaism and of Early Christianity, the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament reflects the normative, self-evidently appropriate (even if evolving) stream of Israelite religion; in comparison, other versions are deviant or insignificant. So, too, in considering post-biblical exegesis, many scholars proceed as if the rabbinic and patristic literatures were normative in Judaic and Christian circles, respectively. This perspective, which treats scripture and its interpretation as the reflection of an evolving, but essentially monolithic, normative religious world-view, takes much of the edge off the need to view the materials in a comparative and sociological perspective. Thus these documents both are, and yet are not, felt to be culturally determined. The practical outcome is that socio-cultural considerations will tend to come into play, if they do at all, in understanding the deviants, not the norm. The norm generally requires no explanation, only interpretation. Only the finer details remain to be explained. That is why the history of biblical interpretation, for example, usually concentrates upon the examination of discrete exegetical traditions and their history. The larger systems of which the discrete pericope is a part do not require explanation; they are taken for granted as givens.

      The second reason for this hiatus is that there has been little development among biblical scholars of requisite theoretical and methodological perspectives. This second factor largely stems from the first. Where there is felt to be no serious problem — for the normal is not problematic — there is no pressing need for tools. But there is, I believe, yet another factor at work. Mary Douglas has pointed to a cultural bias among modern scholars of religion, ⁴ a bias which predisposes scholars to look to ideas as the explanation for religious phenomena, themselves largely reduced to ideas. That is, the history of religions remains to a great extent the history of theological ideas. The relationship of ideas to socio-cultural factors, while admitted, receives less attention.

      The purpose of this book is two-fold. The first is to attempt a shift in perspective, so that what has appeared normal, familiar, and self-evidently appropriate may be seen as unfamiliar and, therefore, needing an explanation. The second is to propose and to use the bare bones of a theoretical and methodological perspective which provides such an explanation. Let me elaborate upon both tasks in turn and then preview the results.

      The Descriptive Task

      As suggested, scholars of Ancient Judaism, many of whom have x grown up' with the text they study, take quite for granted the most general and characteristic shapes of the documents they examine. Their expertise comes to play upon the discrete, for the shape of the whole, as I have

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